PA Bill Number: HB2300
Title: Authorizing the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to join the Counseling Compact; and providing for the form of the compact.
Description: An Act authorizing the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to join the Counseling Compact; and providing for the form of the compact.
Last Action: Referred to PROFESSIONAL LICENSURE
Last Action Date: May 20, 2024
Astroturf v. grassroots: The 'rights versus regulations' battle continues :: 05/20/2015
While the well-funded Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility (WAGR) is planning its third annual fund-raising luncheon next month – and today sent out an e-mail reminder – the financially lean Protect Our Gun Rights (POGR) team yesterday warned in its own funding appeal that “The billionaire gun banners…are at it again!”
“They are beginning the summer,” POGR said of the opposition, “with a MAJOR swanky fundraiser on June 4, 2015 in downtown Seattle! (As if Mike Bloomberg, Nick Hanauer, and the other billionaires supporting taking your rights away didn’t have enough cash already).”
When it comes to gun control versus gun rights, the prohibitionists seem far better funded, thanks to the deep pockets of wealthy elitists who just cannot seem to abide by the fact that average citizens have a right to self-determination, as well as self-defense. These middle class Americans can’t afford armed private security, but they can afford to buy a firearm.
The WAGR group is lamenting that lawmakers in Olympia want to make common sense changes in gun laws to protect the privacy rights of their constituents. They believe that constitutional rights should never be up to a public vote that may be popular now, but what about next year?
WAGR is still basking in the “glory” of having essentially bought last November’s election with a $10 million-plus campaign for Initiative 594, the 18-page gun control and handgun registration measure disguised as a crime-fighting tool. They got a lot of money, roughly 20 percent of their total campaign fund, from Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety lobbying organization and the billionaire ex-new York Mayor, himself, during that campaign, of which one of the arms is Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
Everytown is what some people refer to as "Astroturf," which translates to fake grassroots. The $50 million gun control group is based in New York.
Today in the east, the North Carolina Mothers Against Bloomberg kicked off a radio campaign declaring “Michael Bloomberg doesn’t speak for me.” On the heels of yesterday’s launch by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms of a national membership drive, the North Carolina movement is aimed at countering last week’s $12 million ad campaign launched by moms Demand Action. That anti-gun campaign includes television spots in North Carolina, the pro-gun moms said.
WAGR’s June 4 event is slated for noon at the Westin Hotel in downtown Seattle. They’re going to ask for a donation, and the theme of this year’s event is to hold lawmakers accountable for what essentially is their fealty to the rights of their constituents. POGR on the other hand is asking for support just to keep up the fight.
Meanwhile, the POGR message took a pretty hard swipe at the gun control crowd: “Throughout the campaign on Initiative 594, they promised that if there were problems with the language in 594 that the LEGISLATURE COULD FIX IT. However, every common sense piece of legislation proposed was fought tooth and nail by the lobbyists for WAGR! Even down to the simplest of measures to clarify the definition of ‘transfer’ for things like firearms safety training.”
Back in North Carolina, their first radio spot can be heard here. Perhaps if POGR can raise enough money, they can do radio spots as well. They won’t be putting on “swanky” luncheons at downtown Seattle hotels, however.
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